1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk container provided with an antitheft function to prevent DVDs, CDs or game software articles from being stolen in a disk rental or selling shop.
2. Related Arts
Assuming that DVDs and other disk articles are contained in ordinary disk cases, and that they are shelved for sale, there is a fear of such goods being stolen. In the hope of preventing such theft, the ordinary disk cases have antitheft tag seals applied to their front or rear sides. The antitheft gates in a shop are responsive to such antitheft tag seals for making a warning sound. Antitheft gates, however, are insensitive to the disk cases from which their tag seals are removed.
In many cases DVDs and other disk articles are contained in ordinary disk cases, and the xe2x80x9ccontained in casesxe2x80x9d or cased goods are put in extra containers for display use in a shop. Such extra containers are locked and shelved in the shop. Customers select and bring some double cased goods to the counter in the shop, where clerks unlock the extra containers to take the cased goods out of the extra containers for passing them to the customers in exchange for money. Unlocking, however, is a somewhat troublesome work, which will be multiplied when unlocking a plurality of extra containers. A pretty long time involved for unlocking causes customers to be irritated.
One example of such lock container is a xe2x80x9ccompact disk case provided with antitheft functionxe2x80x9d as shown in Japan Patent 11-193086(A). A cased disk is put in such a lock case for display use. It takes a pretty long time for a clerk to unlock the double cased article and take the cased disk out of the unlocked outer lock case. The lock case of the Japan Patent 11-193086(A) comprises a flat box-like base, an expandable U-shaped frame and two locking-and-unlocking assemblies for locking the U-shaped frame to the box-like base in its rearward shrinking position or for unlocking the U-shaped; frame in its forward expanding position.
Each locking-and-unlocking assembly comprises a resilient piece having forward and rearward projections series-arranged on one side, which resilient piece is fixed to either arm of the U-shaped frame. The flat, box-like base has catch recesses made on its opposite sidewalls. When the box-like base and the U-shaped frame are connected with the forward projections of the resilient pieces caught by the catch recesses of the box-like base, the base-and-frame combination is put in its rearward shrinking position, in which the space defined by the base-and-frame combination is large enough to accommodate the cased disk. When the box-like base and the U-shaped frame are connected with the rearward projections caught by the catch recesses, the base-and-frame combination is put in its forward expanding position, in which the space defined by the base-and-frame combination is larger than the cased disk, thus permitting the cased disk to be taken out.
Before the U-shaped frame is pulled away from the box-like base, thereby shifting from the rearward shrinking position to the forward expanding position, the resilient pieces need to be so bent that their forward projections may leave the catch recesses. For the purpose a magnet is used to pull and bend each resilient piece apart from the side wall of the box-like base until its forward projection has left the catch recess, and then the U-shaped frame is pulled away from the base until the rearward projection has been caught by the catch recess. Thus, the cased disk can be taken out from the lock outer case.
It is, however, required that the U-shaped frame be pulled away from the base while keeping the U-shaped frame unlatched by applying the magnetic force to each resilient piece. This bothers one in taking the cased disk out of the lock outer case: Such bothering work rust be repeated for each and every double cased disk. Assuming that one customer wants to buy or rent a plurality of DVDs and other disk articles, or one clerk keep the plural customers waiting, the bothering work will be multiplied accordingly. It is, therefore, required that a plurality of lock cases be unlocked and opened simultaneously.
In view of the above one object of the present invention is to provide a disk container provided with an antitheft function and an associated unlocking tool, which disk container can be locked and unlocked easily, a plurality of such disk containers being able to be unlocked simultaneously.
To attain this object, a disk container provided with an antitheft function and an associated unlocking tool are improved according to the present invention in that: said disk container comprising a container body having a disk space defined therein, a cover plate hinged to said container body to open and close the disk space of said container body, and a lock plate; said unlocking tool having a magnet installed therein; said container body and said cover plate being so constructed that said container body may define a locking space to accommodate said lock plate when said container body is covered by said cover plate, and said container body having a slot made on one side to communicate with said locking space; said container body and said cover plate being provided with engagement portions in the form of projection or recess, and said lock plate being provided with counter engagement portions in the form of recess or projection, thereby preventing said cover plate from opening by making said engagement portions of said container body and cover plate engage with said counter engagement portions of said lock plate when said cover plate closes said container body with said lock plate inserted in said locking space; one of said lock plate and said container body being provided with a stopper to prevent said lock plate from falling off, and the other being provided with a catch to catch said stopper; said stopper being composed of a flat spring whose top end has a lock nail to be caught by said catch, thereby assuring that said disk container be prevented from opening inadvertently by inserting said lock plate in said locking space until said lock nail of said flat spring is caught by said catch, said lock nail being responsive to application of the magnetic force of said unlocking tool to be pulled apart and released from said catch.
With this arrangement insertion of the lock plate in the locking space prevents the cover plate from opening by mating the engagement portions of the container body and cover plate with the counter engagement portions of the lock plate, and at the same time, the lock plate from falling off by making the lock nail of the stopper to be caught by the catch. The flat spring is responsive to the magnetic force for bending a predetermined angle large enough to allow the lock nail to leave the catch, thus unlatching the lock plate. Then, the lock plate can be pulled out of the disk container, so that the disk container may be unlocked, and the unlocked disk container containing a disk therein may be passed to the customer in exchange for money. The unlocking work is easy, and a plurality of disk containers can be unlocked simultaneously.
The cover plate may be of detachable, openable, slidable, rotary or drawer type. No matter of what opening type the cover plate may be, the locking mechanism can be used.
The cover plate may have an extra space formed on its front side for containing pieces of printed matter such as a chapter sheet, an advertising leaflet, or a librettos leaflet, and other leaflets, the cover plate being provided with a sub-cover plate to close the extra space.
With this arrangement the sub-cover plate can be opened to take out the pieces of printed matter while the cover plate remains locked.
The lock plate may have a flat space to attach a tag seal thereto. With this arrangement the attached tag seal cannot be scratched or removed, and therefore, the antitheft function cannot be lost.
The lock plate may have a projection piece integrally connected thereto, the projection piece appearing out of the disk container when the lock plate is inserted in the container body, the unlocking tool having its magnet such a distance apart from a selected corner of the unlocking tool that when the disk container is applied to the unlocking tool with the projection caught by the selected corner, the magnet may be aligned with the lock nail to release the lock nail from the catch, thus permitting a plurality of disk containers to be simultaneously unlocked simply by applying them to the unlocking tool with their projections caught by the selected corner. In this position the disk containers are moved on the unlocking tool to leave the lock plates behind, and then, the unlocked, cased goods can be passed to customers.